Chapter Two: Lucy
I rummaged through the drawers in my room, nervously fingering the necklace that my mother gave me on my 10th birthday before she died. She told me it would protect me, and I laughed it off, passing it for one of my mother’s obscure fairy stories, but my gut told me that there was actually some protection linked to this family heirloom. I was stuffing a final sweatshirt into my bag and was zipping it closed when Caleb came into my room with some clothes in his hand. He laid them on my bed and said, “Get dressed. We need to leave; I’ll be packing breakfast downstairs.”
Breakfast. The thought hadn’t even entered my mind. I looked at the clock on my nightstand, it read 10:00. The pizza we had last night in honor of my birthday along with a movie seemed like they belonged to the life of another person. I picked up the clothes that Caleb had left for me. They were seemingly nondescript, a pair of khaki pants, a dark green long sleeved T-shirt, and a brown army jacket. I pulled on the pants and was slipping on my tank top when I saw it on my right arm.
CALEB!!! I screamed. I realized that I said it in my head when I only heard the echoes of my scream inside my mind.
Caleb’s footsteps pounded up the stairs, he came barreling through the door, and stood panting, looking around wielding a kitchen knife in his hand.
“What? Who is it?” He said breathlessly.
“THIS!” I yelled, pointing to the tribal tattoo that circled my upper arm. I turned back and forth, looking at it, and rubbing it, trying to get the ink to fade, but nothing happened.
“It’s okay. I have one too, see?” Caleb rolled up his sleeve to reveal the tattoo that he got when he was 16. I didn’t notice it until one day shortly after his birthday when he wore a tank top. I asked him about it, and all he said was that Dad let him get it. Now I was re-thinking his story.
“Everyone in our family gets them on their sixteenth birthday. Mom had one, Dad does too. I’ll explain everything, okay?”
I sighed, my breath shaky. I pulled on my T-shirt, and picked up my duffle bag, before I left, I took one last glance around the room I had lived in since I was born. I had a feeling that I would not be coming back. I shut the door carefully, and followed Caleb down the stairs and into the kitchen.
